The Sandi and Barry Garron Campaign collection represents a lifetime of collecting by 1971 University of Missouri Political Science and Journalism alumnus Barry Garron. Garron is the former president of the Television Critics Association and is a longtime reporter and television critic for the Kansas City Star, The Hollywood Reporter and numerous other publications. He is also a prolific collector of presidential campaign buttons, something he has done for most of his life. In 2021, he donated the entire collection to the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs.

The collection spans the presidential election of 1896, the first with campaign buttons, through the 1996 presidential election, with some buttons from more recent elections. Garron said that he felt like a century’s worth of buttons was a good goal and he has certainly accomplished it. The collection includes buttons for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, as well as third party candidates. The buttons both promote and oppose the candidates. Looking at the collection is a colorful, dynamic and fascinating way to learn about the political history of the 20th century in the United States.

Visit the north side of Ellis Library on Lowry Mall immediately after the Homecoming Parade on Saturday, Oct. 9 for refreshments and family activities. The first 100 kids will receive a free mini pumpkin. This event is free and open to the public.

Students returning to Ellis Library’s Grand Reading Room this fall will be greeted by four new inspiring sculptures – Lunas, Lightspire, Photon and Solaris. The bronze sculptures, by contemporary master, M.L. Snowden, were given to the University Libraries by Drs. Holly Orr and Mark Haskell Monroe. Mark’s father, Haskell Monroe, served as the University of Missouri’s chancellor from 1987 to 1993.

M.L. Snowden is the sole living inheritor of select 19th century marble carving, finishing, casting and bronze patination techniques from the Paris studios of Auguste Rodin and Antonin Mercié. She sculpted alongside her father for seventeen years as an apprentice and as a professional in Snowden Studios. In 1990, she inherited a collection of 38 of the original sculpting tools from the Rodin Studios. Rodin’s tools were bequeathed to M.L. Snowden’s father by the Swiss sculptor, Robert Georges Eberhard.

M.L. Snowden has won the world’s most prestigious sculpture prize, The International Rodin Competition in Tokyo, Japan, and most recently was awarded the inaugural Presidential Order of Merit “In Recognition of Significant Contributions to the Betterment of Humanity Through Art,” presented by the Fine Art Foundation with the sculptor’s work recently added to the Presidential art collection at the White House. The sculptor maintains studios in southern California, Paris and Austria.

Learn more about the artist and her art:
M.L. Snowden Art
The M.L. Snowden Museum